Kenting

I just got back from Kenting. The trip there was 7 hours by bus. I left after Stephen's wedding. Stephen is the one who runs the English Service at Banner Church. I was one of the photographers. What a stressful job. The pictures turned out great. Thank you Jesus.

Kenting is a town 5 min from the southern most part of Taiwan. I met up with Jesse, Mandy, Andrea and Carrie Saturday night. Jesse and I walked around the night market as the girls slept. They did not sleep the night before because they traveled all night. Jesse was not tired so we took the scooters downtown. We found a shaved ice place and sat down and enjoyed one of Taiwan's greatest desserts. There was one road that went along the cost in the town, highway 26. The scooter rides were fun but it is very windy at some parts.

The next day we all got up and headed for the beach. The beach was packed with Taiwanese and foreigners. The beach was littered with umbrellas and Tractors. I guess the locals drive their tractors on the beach pulling wave runners, umbrellas, chairs and surfboards. They rent these out to the people on the beach. The water was warm and the waves (yes waves in Taiwan) were about 1-3 feet. Surfers, wave runners and swimmers all used the clear blue waters and soaked in the Taiwan sun this past weekend. It was great to get away from all the buildings and pollution. God’s creation is so refreshing.



Lunch was on the beach and Jesse and I took off after lunch on the scooters to a national reserve park. It was beautiful and the ride was excellent. I wore a hat and it was very windy so of course my hat flew off while I was looking over some cliffs. The hat did not manage to go to far so I decided to climb down the cliff and get it. The rocks were hard and the bushes where sharp but I got my hat. It was really windy so I was a bit scarred. I made it back safely and as stood up to check my legs for damage a huge group of Taiwanese people were standing up on the cliff clapping for me that I made it back safely. Jesse laughed and headed back to the beach after an ice cream cone.

The sunset was beautiful.

We all sat on the beach and waited for the sunset. It was wonderful. After the sunset we took the scooters to get some cheep Chinese food. The food was great. The hardest part was ordering but we all learned some new words and had some good food.



After dinner we wanted to take some pictures and go for a night swim. We headed down to the same beach and it was empty. The once noisy packed beach was now calm and empty. The waves crashed as we took some fun photographs on the beach. We were all so glad that we made the trip down there.
10/10 was the holiday on Monday. It is Taiwan's birthday. Happy Birthday Taiwan. This gave us the 4 day weekend.
We met up with some other friends that night from Taipei and Taichung. It was great to see all the familiar faces from our training back in the states.
The final day was great as well. We took the scooters to the East of Taiwan. It was a short scooter ride and really windy. I had two of the girls on my scooter. We felt like a Taiwanese family. (I have seen a mom and dad and two children on a scooter before.) The east of Taiwan is mostly cliffs. It was a beautiful sight.


If you are still reading this far I want to give you a little insight into Taiwan’s transportation system. Some buses that you can ride have comfortable leather chairs that recline with their own personal TV screens. Other busses don't. Being a holiday weekend I wanted to keep my options open for a bus ride home so I did not get a return ticket on the comfortable bus. From Kenting to Kou Shoung we got a mini bus. It was a short ride.



From Kou Shoung to Taichung is a 4-5 hour ride by bus. I ended up waiting for 2 hours to get on a bus because every other bus had sold out. The bus I road on stopped every 10-20 minutes to pick more people up. I stood in line after waiting 2 hours to find that there were no more seats on bus but I was still on the bus when it started to pull out. This is when I heard a loud shout from the buss driver in Chinese and every one else went to luggage area. We all sat on the benches below. I was not happy at this point and when the girl who spoke a little English said that it was going to be 5-6 hours like this, I was bummed. God has a way to humble the proud and I sure was humbled sitting in that luggage compartment. I decided to move to the stair well because I couldn't sit up straight. Every stop more people crowded on the bus as well as their luggage. More and more bags and people pilled in. It was never ending. At one point a lady came up to the bus with a large crate. She put it right in front of the bathroom door and talked to the boy sitting in the luggage compartment. I think that there were live creatures in the boxes. The crate was moved and so was I about 8 or 9 times as people went to the bathroom or came onto the bus. To make it worse 3 men decided to have a little smoke in the bathroom at different times. It was a rough ride to say the least. 4 and 1/2 hours later we were home. It was a ride never to forget. Lesson to be learned. Always purchase a return ticket.
God bless

KK